Posted: July 5, 2005

Athletics: Okari, Kiplagat Win Peachtree 10K

Kiplagat ties Waitz with fourth race title

By Paul Christman, Running Stats

ATLANTA, Ga. - (July 4, 2005) - On July 4th, Americans like their barbecue, hot dogs, cold drinks and fireworks. Yet it's no secret many citizens are overweight from just such enthusiastic pursuits.

The Atlanta Track Club (ATC) and its July 4th Peachtree Road Race offer a balance to such holiday festivities. Expend calories first in a traveling party. Eat, drink and be merry afterwards. The ATC and Peachtree 10K trot from Atlanta's Lenox Square to Piedmont Park helps those who help themselves, by choosing motion and a healthy pursuit to temper any such holiday indulgences.

Partial financial independence is also on offer by the Atlanta Track Club's Peachtree Road Race, the world's largest 10K. And what better role models to enlist for the 55,000 starters than many of the world's best foreign and domestic road racers? Those greyhounds from Kenya, Romania, Britain, Mexico, Australia as well as the USA and the four corners of the globe who move with alacrity, and are rewarded financially for their fitness levels.

This year's footrace began at 7:30am, with heavy humidity, but lightly shod feet and high spirits. Dutch citizen Lornah Kiplagat had already won three times coming in, and judging by the fact that she was in second place overall for the first minute or more during a 4:51 opening mile, the Kenyan-born whiz was bound to increase her financial independence.

While longtime Kenyan international Sally Barsosio and others closed somewhat in the downhill first half of the 6.2 miles of prime Atlanta real estate, course record-holder (30:32 in 2002) Kiplagat drew clear on Heartbreak Hill and was never again challenged during a 31:17 fourth women's victory matching the four Peachtree wins by Norwegian great Grete Waitz.

Kiplagat, on a weekend when the music world was stressing the reduction of African poverty, talked of how her Peachtree winnings dating back to 1997 and totaling more than $70,000 go to work at a high-altitude camp she has created for running women in her native Kenya's Iten.

"For the past years I've put all my Peachtree prize money into my camp," she said. "I have to work for it. But the women in my camp benefit from it. It's not just for myself. It assists other people and also gives them chances."

While Kiplagat, who often starts fast, was forced to let the men go on ahead during the first mile, those men went out conservatively in conditions more conducive to cold beverages and botanical gardens than a cross-Atlanta summer expedition.

Going into the second half hills four sleek Kenyans and Tanzanian U.S. racing debutant Fabiano Joseph had dropped everyone else. Then in the final downhill kilometer to the awaiting throngs and festivities in Piedmont Park, it was Gilbert Okari who with a stride longer than Seabiscuit drew away from Joseph for a heat-slowed 28:19 win.

Okari, too, emphasized his appreciation of being able to help others with some level of financial independence thanks to his Peachtree Road Race winnings from this year and last (6th) totaling more than $15,000.

"I can use this money to help brothers and sisters who are not able to get education," said the tall Kenyan who owns course records from both the People's Beach to Beacon 10K and Falmouth Road Race 7 Mile.

As the slower members of the cross-town trot completed their odysseys, second American woman Amy Yoder-Begley said her ninth-place prize money "helps pay the rent" and then summed up her thoughts on the fabled Atlanta event. "I love it," the Indianan enthused. "Running on Independence Day, you can be active, sit around all day and eat, and then watch fireworks."

Even Dutch citizen Kiplagat seemed to get into the spirit of the American holiday.

"My fourth win is special," she related, "because all the Americans are celebrating and you are participating."

36th Atlanta Journal-Constitution Peachtree Road Race 10K (PRRO Championship) - Atlanta, GA, Monday, July 4, 2005

MEN
1) Gilbert Okari, 26, KEN, 28:19, $15,000
2) Fabiano Joseph, 19, TAN, 28:24, $7500
3) William Chebor, 22, KEN, 28:28, $3000
4) Linus Maiyo, 22, KEN, 28:30, $2500
5) Wilson Kigen, 24, KEN, 28:39, $2000
6) Amara Leta, 24, ETH, 28:43, $1500
7) Andrew Letherby, 31, AUS, 28:45, $1000
8) Robert Cheruiyot, 26, KEN, 29:01, $800
9) John Kipruto, 25, KEN, 29:03, $700
10) Henry Kipchirchir, 22, KEN, 29:04, $600
11) Ernest Kimeli, 20, KEN, 29:07, $500
12) Wilson Komen, 27, KEN, 29:07, $400
13) Barnaba Kipkoech, 25, KEN, 29:10, $300
14) Gilbert Koech, 25, KEN, 29:17, $250
15) Fred Mogaka, 27, KEN, 29:34, $200
Top Americans:
17) Mbarak Hussein, 40, Albuquerque, NM, 29:41, $2500
19) Joe Gibson, 28, Greenville, SC, 30:15, $500
20) Joe Driscoll, 25, Blowing Rock, NC, 30:46, $300

MASTERS MEN (40+)
1) Hussein, see above
2) Pat Fuller, 40, Eugene, OR, 30:51, $1000
3) Paul Aufdemberge, 40, Detroit, MI, 31:04, $500
4) Brian Pope, 42, Lafayette, MS, 31:20, $300
5) David Matherne, 40, Cartersville, GA, 33:37, $200

WOMEN
1) Lornah Kiplagat, 31, NED, 31:17, $15,000
2) Sally Barsosio, 27, KEN, 31:52, $7500
3) Kathy Butler, 31, GBR, 32:24, $3000
4) Luminita Talpos, 32, ROM, 32:32, $2500
5) Victoria Klimina, 29, RUS, 32:33, $2000
6) Hilda Kibet, 25, KEN, 32:37, $1500
7) Constantina Tomescu-Dita, 35, ROM, 32:51, $1000
8) Colleen De Reuck, 41, Boulder, CO, 33:13, $3300
9) Amy Yoder-Begley, 27, Albuquerque, NM, 33:21, $1200
10) Aster Demissie, 21, ETH, 33:26, $600
11) Jenny Crain, 37, Milwaukee, WI, 33:30, $800
12) Nicole Aish, 29, Gunnison, CO, 33:41, $400
13) Tetyana Hladyr, 30, UKR, 33:42, $300
14) Nicole Stevenson, 31, CAN, 33:43, $250
15) Gladys Asiba, 28, KEN, 34:04, $200

MASTERS WOMEN (40+)
1) De Reuck, see above
2) Firaya Sultanova-Zhdanova, 44, RUS, 34:06, $1000
3) Ramilia Burangulova, 43, RUS, 34:58, $500
4) Carmen Troncoso, 46, Austin, TX, 35:34, $300
5) Zinaida Semenova, 43, RUS, 35:53, $200

For more Peachtree results, go to: AtlantaTrackClub.org.